25 stories by "Max Maller"
Interrobang revives Daniel MacIvor's mind-bending solo about the art of lying.
Interrobang Theatre Project presents a revival of Daniel MacIvor's daringly strang…
Leslye Headland's drama reignites the dead nerve endings of romance.
"I would let [insert name here] ruin my life" is a phrase that anyone who's radiated their e…
A Cleveland bar faces gentrification in Factory's latest.
I guess a bad play could be written about the hostile overthrow of a Cleveland Heights karaoke bar at t…
Two gay men and their pooches try to build a life together in this tepid play.
Normally, in a fantasy life, you obsess over your pets. Dog cloning figures largel…
American Blues Theater takes a page from the Edward Snowden story in its latest.
"You're a traitor to me." Everything about Roan @ the Gates, the magnificent sho…
C.A. Johnson's searing drama shows three ways of dealing with the apocalypse.
Three distinct responses to the havoc of loss circle one another in playwright C.A.…
The Ruffians move to the larger Ruth Page Center for the Arts, but the heart of the story remains strong.
I fished this jacket I hadn't worn since last winter ou…
Sophocles's tragedy could use some emotional veils in Court Theatre's staging.
Montaigne, quoting from ancient sources, describes a painting of the sacrifice of …
Beau O'Reilly's latest play for Curious Theatre Branch celebrates weirdness as resistance.
If Chicago theater has a high priest, a white-ponytailed president of …
A new immersive show (with dialogue!) from Silent Theatre Company becomes an astonishing experience.
Concentrate on the cookies. Practice your song.…
Lucy Kirkwood's drama has bite in Steep Theatre's U.S. premiere.
Science plays like this one by British playwright Lucy Kirkwood often hinge on the idea that the…
The puppetry is cunning, but not enough to sustain this Rough House Theater show.
It's a toss-up for me between the floating torso with a desk lamp for a head an…
Michael John LaChiusa's riff on Arthur Schnitzler's 1897 play gets a stellar production from Theo Ubique.
Ten pairs of lovers, ten pairs of strangers. This music…
The Artistic Home gives Jason Hedrick's world premiere about a grim future a life-affirming production.
More postapocalyptic plays about staging Chekhov in peopl…
D.H. Lawrence's portrait of mother love misses the mark in this On the Spot adaptation.
There is a distinction to be drawn between adaptation and dramatization. …
A song-and-dance man learns to smile through his pain.
The heyday of vaudeville is over and done with 15 minutes into this delightful new musical from Underscore…
Have we reached the promised land he died fighting for?
If he were still alive today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be 90. It's been 51 years since his assas…
The Annoyance show may rely too much on stereotypes, but it's still lot of fun.
Al from Nebraska (Ben Cumings) goes searching for love through the heavy steam of…
The main character, a novelist, is a font of imagination.
A young adult novelist puzzles through fame, nostalgia, and the tedium of the everyday in Chicago playw…
In the process, we all learn, despite our initial impressions, that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Things it would be good to inherit from a famous pl…
But what happens when one's a Nazi apologist and the other's a Jew?
Wasting away on a student's diet of crackers and boiled eggs, young Hannah Arendt (Christina …
Breaking the frame brings this German avant garde play to life.
The most incredible moment in this Theatre Y production of a nearly-forgotten German avant-garde …
Midnight Circus and Aloft Circus Arts have created their own intimate version of the big top in the city's lofts and churches.
"We used to have a rhino on Ringl…
Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer winner should be required viewing.
When people talk about "Trump's America," they mean two things at once. In general, the phrase is simp…
Tony Adler stepped down as the Reader's senior theater critic last month.…
